Can you find recovery from compulsive eating later in life? Nancy from Texas USA came back in her mid 60s after 30 years of relapse with compulsive eating. “That first meeting when I returned to OA was a ‘God moment’ for me,” she says, “and I’ve had many more God moments since.”
Have you ever asked yourself, “Why is this pet, or this person, in my life right now?” One of the joys of recovery is realizing there’s a reason.
Joan has completely turned her life around in the four years since she joined OA. “The person I am today is no longer full of yesterday’s resentments,” she says. “She is a person who seeks daily to be the OA message.”
Linda, a compulsive eater, and Karen, abstinent compulsive eater and food addict, host this workshop on Step Ten: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”
A couple of months ago, I had an evening when I was feeling so much frustration, irritation, resentment, and disconnection from myself and those around me. I texted my sponsor and said, “I don’t know how to allow a Higher Power to help me. I just have too much resistance. I know that the Power of love in the world exists and could help, but … Continued
“When I first came to OA thirty-three years ago, I was a bundle of resentments, says Carrie. Today? “I can honestly say that I no longer have resentments . . . I marvel every day in this program how the Steps really work.”
Tina, a recovering compulsive overeater, and Gloria, a compulsive overeater and food addict, host this workshop on Step Nine: “Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” They give specific examples to show what making amends can look like in different situations.
Stephanie, an abstinent compulsive overeater, and Nancy, a gratefully recovering and abstinent compulsive eater, host this workshop on OA’s Fourth Step: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”
Ronnie, a compulsive overeater, and Tina, a recovering compulsive overeater, host this workshop on Step Eight: “Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.” For Ronnie, the accountability of Step Eight is what differentiates the OA program from talk therapy.
A preacher’s son, Joe’s compulsive eating was born when he became an adult and renounced the religion of his upbringing. From then on, Joe says he was “running too the food or away from the food.” At Joe’s first OA meeting, he felt hope seeing that others had overcome their food obsessions.